Archimedes lived and died on the island of Syracuse,
Where his capacious brain grappled with mighty challenges
And, over and over again, was victorious.
He was killed in error by a soldier disobeying orders,
For when order is cast aside in moments of lust or greed,
The only possible results are chaos and tragedy.
You asked me to write you a poem.
A poem about you, perhaps, or one about
The impact you have had on my life.
This is my challenge, and my brain
Has grappled with the question:
How can I measure what you mean to me?
And I kept thinking about Archimedes.
Archimedes found the way to calculate
The area of a sphere, the volume of a cylinder.
Legends say he pondered such questions
While soaking in his steaming bath.
When he noticed how his body
Displaced the hot, salty water around it,
And made it rise to accommodate its
Impact, he rose up in a burst of clarity
And ran naked into the Syracuse streets,
Shouting, "Eureka! I have found it!"
I cannot clearly recall when we first met,
But over time, I realized that you were a
Person of tentative grace, and curious interest
In the world around you, as well as times
And places and experiences long past.
You observe the whirlwind and take
Something useful from it, yet you are
Vulnerable to its bruising passing.
As Archimedes slipped his weary bones
Into his bath, and set his mind on fire,
He must have felt a rush of ecstatic joy,
The glorious moment of discovery.
His gift, one among others such as
Calculus, geometry and mathematics,
Was to show us how one being impacts
Everything around it, and displaces
Volume, pushing surrounding matter
Aside to make room for something new.
And, as I began to observe you observing,
I realized that I was not as I saw myself,
Not the discarded hand I thought I'd become,
Not an ace high, with shreds of a baby straight
That had never really materialized.
No, I was still capable of inspiration,
Quite alive inside and ambitious yet,
Not willing to capitulate to time's passing.
That is part of your impact on me.
After Archimedes' tragic death, he was
Hastily buried in a shabby grave, one
Neglected over time, grown over with
Brambles and dust and grime.
Later, the great orator Cicero
Sought the forgotten tomb and, upon
Finding it, restored it to honor the
Timeless gifts of the great Archimedes.
As the late thinker had requested,
Symbols of his favorite discoveries
Were placed upon his restored tomb:
A sphere and a cylinder.
The sphere and the cylinder must
Represent something greater,
I thought, and they are linked somehow,
Joined forever in complement,
Representations of two types of beings
That may look very different, but are
Meant to stand together, and to
Have an impact on each other.
As Archimedes proved, one being
Displaces liquid or air or mass
Around it, disturbing the status quo,
Changing it forever.
And so, you have an impact on
My existence, stirring the waters,
Creating new space,
Area to be filled with something
New, something unknown,
Something that may, with the
Help of Archimedes' gifts,
To be measured one day.
